All I want for Christmas is a healthy dog?

This is a special place for pups to share their love and support for each other during difficult times; it's a place to light candles, give the "Power of the Paw," and let everyfur know they are never ever alone.

Almost two years ago Bella became a part of our family, for a small fee of $175, we thought we were lucking out to have such a wonderful pup for such a small amount while others spend thousands on a particular breed. Of course we still feel so lucky that she is in our lives but we would like to share a huge piece of advice, "GET DOGGY INSURANCE". Make sure that your doggy insurance covers everything including all leg injuries and hip displasia. Most cover cancer and common injuries but many fail to cover ACL, torn ligaments, and the patallar. We made the mistake of never looking into doggy insurance and we would hate to see anyone have to go throught the same struggles we have.

For those of you who do not know Bella's story, she was playing fetch with Austin in November of 2007. Later that evening we noticed she was limping,crying, and licking her leg. We then took her to the emergency room and were told it was her ACL (bill), the next day we took her into out regular vet (bill). The told us that we could try to rest her and see if it would heal on its own, and continue to bring her in every few weeks to check on it. (bill) (x-rays) (bill) (x-rays) (bill) (bill). Unfortunatly as soon as it started to get better it, it just got worse again. Our Vet told us it was time for a patellar luxation surgery, which we had never heard of. Our Vet then cleary explained that it was not her ACL but it was her patellar, her knee bone was popping in and out of the socket. We decided it was time to go for the surgery. (BILL) Twenty six hundred dollars later Bellas begins to heal and is doing great, until a minor run on the leash caused the pins in her knee to become loose. Her knee began to swell up so we brought her back into the Vet, they quoted us $600 to have just one of the pins removed. After the pin was removed Bella showed no signs of progress. After another visit to the vet we were told that her ACL was now torn and that she would need another surgery.
After a second opinion from another vet (bill) we were taken back by the news that this Vet was less expensive. After putting alot of trust into Bella's and building a strong relationship with her we were disgusted to find out that the other vet would have charged alot less for the same surgery. We decided to switch vets and have the surgery done there. After the surgereon finished the surgery he called us to inform us that there were many surprises when he went in for the surgery. He found that the medial collateral ligment was completely torn, the menscus needed to be removed, there was only 10% of her crusciate left and of course her ACL was completly torn. This is were we leave off... Bella is recovered from her Patalla Lux. surgery with an infection.
Now, she just went in again because she still wasn't putting enough pressure on it, the Vet went in and tightened the musle, which is not ozzing fluid everywhere, we have to bring her back on wednesday to see if it is an infection and then we would be back to "square one" says the vet. Please help us, we are running out of funds and hope for our poor baby.
Please say some prayers that this is the end and we can start to pay off the $10,000 in vet bills, we want Bella to be able to her family again.

YIKES!!! Thanks for the info...my Mama is going to check on the terms and read the fine print for my insurance policy....it may be worth paying an extra $5 each month on top of our regular premium to get the additional coverage (dog forbid that I would ever need it - knock wood).

Bella This is not going to help much now and hopefully you will not need it in the future, Momma found a credit card called " CareCredit" it is issued by GM's bank and allows you to pay the bill over 18 months with no interest. Small catch is that your vet has to take the card, we are lucky to be connected with a VCA vet in the Chicago area that does, I just had my knee reconstructed ( torn ACL and luxating patella) total bill was only $2500. Maybe worth a look.

"Make sure that your doggy insurance covers everything including all leg injuries and hip displasia."
Shadow was diagnosed not too long ago with hip dysplasia and, after the fact of coarse, I started looking into Pet Insurance and was not able to find one that covers 'genetic defects'. Just an FYI.
Sorry to hear of all of your problems though - it must have been very hard for you and your family to go through all of that.

Nikita, first - good to see you up and around. Second, can you either pmail me or post a link to that card? I don't think that even with something like that we will be able to swing hip replacements for Shadow, but it's worth checking into. Thanks!

There is a new doggie insurance that is not offered everywhere and does cover genetic disorders like hip dysplagia. I forget the name but when I get I will post in my diary. Sorry to hear about ur tight budget as well, unfortuantly mine is all on credit cards and will take along time to pay off.

Thanks for the insurance info! I have another lab that I should check into it for!
Yeah - we were quoted about $8000/each for the replacements which I initially thought was highway robbery but after getting some additional quotes that was right on the money for this area Plus it can't be done locally so he would have to go to Madison which would also require me to take time off of work.

So I recieved some advice on how I might go about raising money for these costly surgeries. I am going to put in some more research over the holiday and if anyone has any suggestions, advice, or is willing and able to donate I would love to hear from you. Bella truly is an amazing dog, we want to be able to keep in in our lives, and we realize that times are tough on everyone right now. So if you can help in any way then stay posted for the details. Thank you all for you endless support and please keep Bella in your prayers.

Bella - another thing you may want to do is check with some bully rescues in your area and see if they know of any organizations that will assist in paying the bills. I know that there are some lab ones out there (unfortunately they do not cover genetic defects either) so maybe there are some places like that for bully breeds. We are keeping our fingers and paws crossed for you to have a happy, safe and pain free holiday season!